Hope Library is pleased to present a new monthly program called HOPE WORKS AND FRIENDS, featuring the farmers, makers and creators in our town and the towns nearby – their stories, in their own words.
The inaugural Hope Works presenter is none other than Brodis Blueberries, our town’s ninth-generation blueberry farm. On Thursday, March 28, starting at 7 p.m., Gwen Brodis, farm owner, and Ron Howard, farm manager, will be at Hope Library to discuss the history, and future, of Brodis Blueberries.
No admission will be charged, however, donations to the library are gratefully accepted. Light refreshments, featuring Brodis blueberries, will be served.
Please watch the library’s website and Facebook page for announcements about future HOPE WORKS presenters. Suggestions for this programming can be sent to hopelibrary04847@gmail.com
ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS
Brodis Blueberries is owned by Gwen Brodis and includes 170 acres of wild blueberries that she and her family have managed for years. In fact one of her ancestors was Oliver Simmons who was one of the “Group of 20” who were awarded a land-grant for property here in Hope in the 1750s.
Gwen and her late husband Dick managed the land for years, along with their extended family, greatly improving the land to what it is today. In recent years, family has seen the need to expand their direct sales of berries as opposed to selling to a wholesaler and that has included fresh and frozen berries, jams, sauces, pies and even spirits made from their wild blueberries by Gwen’s grandson and co-owner of Barrens Distillery, Jeremy Howard.
Over the last couple years they have made major improvements in buildings and some modern equipment never used on wild blueberries in Maine before.
